New York City protesters call for boycott of HP products and freedom for Shorouq Dwayyat, all Palestinian prisoners

New York demonstrators rallied on 10 February outside Best Buy in Union Square to urge the boycott of HP products for the company’s involvement in profiteering from the imprisonment of Palestinians, and demanding the freedom of over 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails.

The protest, organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network highlighted demands to release Shorouq Dwayyat, a 19-year-old student at Bethlehem University sentenced to 16 years in Israeli prison on 25 December.

Protesters handed out flyers and literature to passers-by highlighting the involvement of Hewlett-Packard companies in providing services to Israeli prisons, checkpoints and settlements, as well as describing the situation of Palestinian political prisoners jailed by Israel. Some construction workers passed by the protest and exchanged information with participants both about Palestine and about the campaign of construction workers in New York for adequate health and safety training for non-union workers.

Signs highlighted the imprisonment of Dwayyat, one of a number of young Palestinians hit with particularly harsh sentences after allegations of attempted stabbings of Israeli settlers or soldiers. Dwayyat was severely injured by the four bullets lodged within her body, unlike the Israeli man she was accused of attempting to stab, who suffered no serious injuries. Following the court’s ruling, the Israeli Interior Ministry stripped the imprisoned Dwayyat of her Jerusalem residency, claiming “breach of trust,” using the case as a mechanism to further the Israeli state policy of attacking Palestinian existence in Jerusalem.

Samidoun in New York is participating in a protest on Wednesday, 15 February against the Trump-Netanyahu meeting, called by the NY4Palestine Coalition. Protesters will gather at 5:30 pm at Trump Tower on 5th Avenue in New York City, denouncing Trump and Netanyahu’s walls, travel bans, settler colonialism and wars. In addition, the next weekly protest for Palestinian prisoners will take place on Friday, 17 February at Best Buy Union Square at 5:30 pm, denouncing the persecution of Basel Ghattas and urging freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners. All are welcome and invited to join in both protest actions.